ACE offers a mentorship scheme that takes advantage of its interdisciplinary membership and early career network to provide ongoing mentoring support, opportunities, and training to researchers. ACE Mentorship scheme The ACE mentorship scheme pairs members in the early career network with ACE members who have chosen to be mentors. The mentors can be:Peer: other Early Career Network membersNear: late PhDs and postdocsFar Career: new to late PIsThis scheme aims to strengthen research connections and promote early career development in the ACE network by matching mentees to mentors who can provide support, advice, and share experiences. By including a wide breadth of participant research backgrounds and career stages, the scheme also aims to: promote diversity in the content discussed during mentoring relationships; increase flexibility for mentees to choose whether they prefer a mentor that is peer, near or far career; and allow early career researchers (late PhDs or postdocs) to gain mentoring experience. What is a mentor?A mentor is someone who provides support and guidance to a colleague through positive conversations about topics related to their colleague’s career and professional development, offering advice and experiences where appropriate. The mentoring role can be performed effectively in different ways and can be adaptable to specific mentoring relationships.Becoming a mentorWe encourage early career researchers (late PhDs and postdocs) to sign up to be mentors, as near career mentoring relationships provide valuable perspectives. Please see the IAD’s resource for further information and recommendations:Being a mentor Get Involved Mentoring OptionsThe scheme offers both:1:1 ("on your tod")Group (“with your pod”) mentoring options that include participants across a wide range of disciplines and career stages: from mathematics to ecology and from early career PhDs and postdocs to later career PIs. On your tod With your pod Get Involved To become a mentee or a mentor, fill in the form linked below:Sign up form This is an ongoing opt-in scheme and you will be assigned a mentor and/or mentee if you engage fully with the questions and information required in the sign-up form.Please read our general guidelines below before signing up to the scheme. Document ACE Mentorship Scheme Guidelines (161.04 KB / PDF) Want to give us feedback or have suggestions on how this scheme could be improved?Please fill in our anonymous feedback form or contact a mentorship officer directly: XX@ed.ac.uk This article was published on 2025-07-07